Win Or Die
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: Nick and Morgan's case turns up a heartbreaking reason a young teen died. Nick and Morgan are not in a relationship, they are just working a case together! Happy New Year everyone! Please read and review!


Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI

**Win or Die**

"Nick, you and Morgan get a DB at Washington High school." Russell said as the CSI team sat in the break room receiving their assignments for the night.

"Alright, do you know anything else about the case?" Nick asked.

"No, that's all that I have for now, sorry." Russell replied.

Nick looked over at Morgan and said "I'll drive."

Morgan nodded and then the two CSI'S left for their crime scene.

When they arrived at Washington High School Jim Brass was already there. He led them into the boys' locker. A body of a teenager lay on the floor.

Brass nodded at the body and said "This is Dane Roberts, he's a student here at Washington."

"Who called it in?" Nick asked.

"A night janitor, named Sam Middleton." He said after glancing at his notes. "The janitor told me that Dane was the quarterback of the football team and that he was a popular and well-liked kid."

Nick shook his head and then got on his haunches so he could get a better look at the body. Nick immediately noticed the deep cuts on the victim's left wrist. He also noticed a bloody razor blade lying next to the body.

"Oh man" he said out loud.

"I noticed the cuts and the blade too, I immediately thought suicide, how about you?" Brass asked as Nick snapped a couple of pictures of the blade and then picked it up.

"Looks like, but let's wait until Doc confirms it before we jump to conclusions." Nick answered.

Nick snapped a few pictures of the body and the crime scene around the body.

"Sorry I'm late." David Philips said as he came into the locker room.

"No problem Super Dave."

David took the vic's liver temperature.

"He's been dead around 4 hours." He said.

"Help me roll him Super." Nick said.

They rolled the victim over and found no signs of trauma or anything on his back. The body was then transferred to the coroner's office for autopsy. Nick and Morgan stayed at the scene for a while looking for other evidence but they found nothing. Once back at the lab both CSI'S wanted to be at the autopsy. Doc Robbins confirmed that Dane's death was in fact a suicide.

"I just don't get it, why would a young, good looking, well-liked kid do that to themselves? It doesn't make any sense." Morgan asked Nick as they sat in the break room drinking a cup of coffee.

Nick sighed "Who knows? It's awful though." He agreed.

Nick's cell phone rang.

"Stokes" he said.

"Nick, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are here to see you." Brass said.

"Alright, I'll be right there." Nick said as he stood up.

He hung up the phone.

He looked at Morgan "What I have to do now is by far the worst part of this job." He said.

"Tell his parents?" she guessed.

"Yeah." He said with a sigh as he walked out of the room.

"You're telling us that our son committed suicide?" Joe Roberts asked Nick as Nick, and the victim's parents Joe and Jessica Roberts sat in the interrogation room.

"Yes sir, I am so sorry." Nick said sincerely.

Jessica Roberts started sobbing uncontrollably. Her husband wrapped his arm around her.

"But why would Dane do that?" Joe asked.

"That's what we are trying to figure out sir." Nick said.

The distraught father nodded his head in despair.

"Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, would you mind answering a few questions about your son? It might help me figure out what happened." Nick said.

"Sure" Joe said.

"Was Dane upset about anything, school, did he did he break up with his girlfriend or anything like that?"

"No, Dane is an honor roll student, he was even given a full ride scholarship to play football in California next year. And no, he doesn't have a girlfriend, he always jokes that he is too busy to have a girlfriend." Joe said.

Jessica Roberts couldn't take it any longer.

"I'm sorry, I can't do this." She said as she got up and sprinted out of the room.

"Excuse us." Joe said as he ran after his wife.

Nick sat in the interrogation room alone. _"Sometimes I hate this job."_ He thought to himself as he ran his hand over his face.

Minutes later Joe Roberts came back into the room.

"Is it alright if my wife sits out in the hall, this is too much for her." Joe asked.

"Of course." Nick replied.

"Thank you." He said.

Nick nodded with a kind smile on his face.

"Mr. Roberts, did Dane ever complain of being bullied or picked on?"

"Are you kidding? Everyone loves Dane. Dane is the kind of person that talks to everyone, he's nice to everyone, if someone is upset he wants to help any way that he can. For as long as I can remember, ever year for Christmas he takes one hundred dollars of his own money and goes and buys presents for underprivileged children in the community. Not many high school kids can say they do that." Joe said.

Nick was impressed "No, they can't." he agreed.

"Mr. Stokes, my son is as good of a kid as any parent could hope for. I'm begging you, find out what happened, find out why he did this, please."

The look of sorrow in this poor man's eyes made Nick nearly vomit.

"I will do my best, I promise." Nick said.

The next morning, as soon as Washington school was in session Nick and Morgan headed over there. Everyone that Nick and Morgan talked to, teachers, coaches, and fellow students said exactly what Joe Roberts had told Nick, Dane was a well-liked, nice, happy, and generous person.

Nick finally got some information about why the teen committed suicide when he talked to a couple of Dane's football teammates. As Nick sat on a bench in the hallway with two guys from the football team he couldn't believe what he heard.

"Dane has been really depressed since the state championship game." Cody Michaels, a friend and team mate of Dane told him.

"Why's that?" Nick asked, relieved that he was finally getting somewhere in the investigation.

"Because we lost to our arch rivals, Martinsville High, we had only lost one game all season before the state game and we were heavy favorites to win. Dane blamed the loss solely on himself because we were down by only four points and on the last play of the game, Adam Slauson, our star wide receiver was wide open in the back of the end zone and Dane overthrew him and the ball went right over Adam's head and that was the end of our state championship hopes." Cody explained.

"Yeah and Dane never got over it, he felt he felt like he let everyone down, the team, coaches, his parents, heck the entire school for that matter, although we told him over and over that it wasn't his fault, football is a team game, we win as a team, and we lose as one. He was always the first one to give everyone else credit for all the wins we had, but he was never willing to share the blame for losing the state game." Ben Johnson, another close friend and teammate of Dane's said.

Nick sat silent for a minute, he was shocked at what he was hearing.

"How come nobody else said a word to me about Dane being upset about anything, let alone this devastated about something?" Nick finally asked.

"Because he hid how he felt, he didn't want anyone to worry about him so he acted like his normal, happy self all the time, but when he was around his teammates he expressed how he truly felt. His closest friends on the team all knew how he felt but never in a million years did we think he would do something like this." Cody explained.

Nick nodded in understanding.

"We were two of his closest friends, we should have seen this coming, we should have told someone that he was so upset, but we thought he'd get over it eventually, if I for one minute thought he was going to do this, I would have done something." Ben said.

"Hey now, you listen to me, this is in no way your fault, you can't blame yourselves for this." Nick said sternly.

He didn't want these boys to carry this guilt for the rest of their lives, they did nothing wrong. He did understand the guilt they were feeling however because after Warrick had been killed Nick had felt a lot of guilt for not walking him to his car that night, or for not being there for him when he was shot and lay bleeding in his car.

The two boys nodded at him with sad smiles on their faces.

"I am truly sorry for your loss." Nick said as he dug in his coat pocket for a pad of paper and a pencil.

"Here is my personal cell phone number, if at anytime you need someone to talk to someone feel free to give me a call. I lost a very good friend of mine a few years ago and I know how you feel."

"Thanks." Cody said.

"Yes thank you." Ben added.

Nick nodded at them with a smile "Thank you both for sharing this information with me. At least now his parents will know why he did this, hopefully that will provide them at least a little closer" Nick said.

Cody nodded and Ben said "You're welcome."

"You boys keep your chins up, and I'm serious about calling me if you'd like to talk." Nick said.

The boys thanked him once more and then Nick left so he could go find Morgan who was interviewing other people.

On the way back to the lab Morgan sat in the passenger seat stunned as Nick told her what Ben and Cody had told him.

When he had finished speaking she looked at him with serious eyes and asked

"What are we suppose to tell his parents? That their son killed himself over a football game."

Nick sighed and said "As Grissom once said….we tell them the truth."

The End!


End file.
